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The Legal Showdown Between Feds & Florida

Florida is a key state in every Presidential election; sometimes even the most important swing state, as we saw in the 2000 election when Florida ultimately decided the outcome. Now, a legal showdown is coming between the state of Florida and the Federal government. Why? Because Florida has a problem with allowing dead people and non-citizens to vote. Excuse me for only believing in voting rights for living, legal U.S. citizens.

Yes, apparently it is an infringement on “civil liberties” to deny non-citizens the right to vote in the United States. Of course, that’s according to the American Civil Liberties Union– a group not exactly known for logical arguments. Really, though: Why would the federal government sue a state over an issue like this? Shouldn’t they be glad that a state is taking the necessary precautions to ensure fair elections?

For months now, Florida has been attempting to clean up its voter rolls and make sure only those who can legally vote will be allowed to do so. Florida currently has a photo ID requirement in order to vote. However, according to the Obama administration, it would be violating federal voting laws to remove non-citizens and deceased people from the voting rolls; but, there’s more to this situation once you get past the surface. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said that “states cannot have unfettered authority” to remove voters from voting rolls within ninety days of a federal election– and Florida’s state primaries are August 14th. On the other hand, Florida has been trying to verify their voter rolls for months now: “For nearly a year, the US Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,” Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said. Can Florida be told it cannot tamper with voter rolls within ninety days of an election even if they tried to accomplish their goals months in advance, and were met with denials from the Department of Homeland Security?

The underlying issue here is perhaps the most ridiculous “issue” I can think of: Photo ID requirements in order to vote are vehemently opposed by many groups, who claim it is an infringement on voting rights. My question, though, is: What voting rights? If these people are not U.S. citizens, they don’t have any voting rights. Last month, Florida announced that they had found nearly 2,600 registered voters who were not believed to be U.S. citizens. Obviously this is an issue in Florida, especially with such a diverse population of people from all over the world. Why do people oppose photo ID laws? If you’re legally a U.S. citizen and allowed to vote, you have no reason to oppose them; rather, you should support them to ensure your vote is not canceled out by that of an illegal citizen or a dead person. The only reasons to oppose photo ID’s are either you’re not a citizen but are currently registered to vote, or you buy into all the “infringement on the liberties I don’t actually have” stuff that’s put out there by groups like the ACLU.

So, folks, it’s time for another fight over voting rights. This time, the federal government is trying to protect the rights of non-citizens to vote as much as they can; and the state of Florida is trying to take those names off the rolls and ensure a fair election in November, especially considering the 2000 election when Florida’s results were so close. They’re heading to federal court to determine whose case is stronger– but is it even a question? When non-citizens are given the right to vote, the entire course of the country can and will be altered, and probably not for the better. The Constitution and the liberties given in it do not apply to anyone but citizens of the United States. There’s no need to change that. Our democratic process must be protected at all costs. Even at the cost of– big shocker– only allowing living U.S. citizens to vote. If Democrats cannot win an election without the votes of dead citizens and illegal immigrants, the message should ring loud and clear: American citizens want a different, more prosperous direction for their country. It’s wrong to validate the votes of illegal citizens for the sake of pursuing a personal agenda rather than listening to what the real citizens of this country are saying.